Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Aquarius

Aquarius - Aquarius Continental 1.07-405-098 (1976)

Here's a delicious slice of Bossa goodness, beautiful soulful vocals set to a dreamy backdrop of arrangements by Raymundo Bittencourt.

This one commands high prices and it's easy to see why within moments of touching the needle down! You may recognise some of the tunes, although the arrangements differ from those on the Burnier & Cartier LP. No Cláudio Cartier here, but you needn't worry, the same breezy vocal appeal comes from Octávio & Sonia Burnier (a la Ronie Mesquita & Central Do Brasil).

Raymundo Bittencourt (acoustic guitar, drums, vocal, arrangements); Octavio Burnier (electric guitar, vocal); Leonardo Luiz (piano); Alberto Arantes (bass) and Sonia Burnier (lead vocal) - all the ingredients are in place and if ever there were an album that embodies that groovy Brasilian spirit that is so in-demand now, this is it! Download now - thank me later.

25 comments:

Thankyou, this is lovely! That's my new favourite version of Toninho Horta's 'Beijo Partido' (if that was the original ? or was it djavan?)'Pink bar" is driving me crazy, it's got this faux-'oriental' lilt to it ... Such great arrangements .... well, i realllllly like this.

Wow, another rare piece of the Burnier-Cartier puzzle. I've been looking for this one for years. As for Beijo Partido, Milton Nascimento, Nana Caymmi and the Tamba Trio all recorded it in 1975, a year before this. Did Djavan really do a version too?

Pawlyshyn, I just checked the CD I thought it was on, and no, I think I must have had the Nascimento one in my head ... :) Did you guys get the live Burnier-Cartier album (Sydney Opera House, with Don Burrows and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra) ? It was up at Loronoix, but he lost a lot of his files a few months ago ...

>Did you guys get the live Burnier-Cartier album (Sydney Opera House, with Don Burrows and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra) ?

That album proves how dazzling they could be without any of the studio window-dressing of their two studio albums. But it's an odd collection -- the tracks without Burner and Cartier are on the stodgy side.

Pawlyshyn, I've cut mine down to a single album version (though I did love the whole concert itself as a teenager, my mother took me to it!). Didn't have a huge effect on me at the time, but must have resonated later ..

Wow, Simon, you went to that show? What do you know about the circumstances? It seems a bit mysterious -- veteran jazzman invites obscure Brazilian duo to Australia to share spotlight at concerts. Do you actually have the album? I would love to see a proper FLAC version with the full cover. Yes, I don't mind the full show, but as a Burnier-Cartier album, it's much better cut down to a single CD.Cheers,Roman

Hi Pawlyshyn - Burrows was in a period of fascination with brazilian music at that stage, including some Brazilian tracks on his albums. Not sure of the circumstances - the year after that, he brought out Burnier's uncle Luis Bonfa for another album. I do have the album. Had really been waiting to see if Loronix were going to re-up it, as they had flacs there before someone trashed hundreds of their rapidshare links a few months back. If this doesn't happen I'll put it up at Never Enough Rhodesregards, Simon